Responder/edc knives.

J

JBARR

Joined
Nov 4, 2014
Messages
26
OK, this is a little weird but I have a few questions. I'll give the pertinent info first.

I have come up with a design where 4 knives will all fit the same kydex sheath. Two blade types that can be folders or full tang fixed. The idea is to make a knife that an EMT/Fire rescue can keep clipped to his pocket off the job but can also keep a sheath on his belt for easier acces . Meaning the Folder is locked open and in a sheath like a fixed blade.

One blade is a standard Wharncliffe either fixed or folding. The other is a divers blade style fixed or folding. ( blunt flat nose, with 50/50 serated/fine blade with belt cutter.) The fixed style will also have a small flat and Phillips driver on the pommel and a small pry that will act as a glass breaker.

My questions are:
What steels would be sufficient for maintaining edge under these circumstances and also be able to pry without shattering?

What is the average cost to have blades laser/ water cut?

Does the general idea sound like it would sell?
 
1. Are you a medic/emt/ff?
2. Have you ever made a knife before?
3. Most responders aren't knife guys. Most think $10 knives are just fine.

Make two or five of them before you move on to Water jet and mass production. If you've never made a knife, you might be surprised......it's not as easy as it looks.
 
I've made a few , I work at a hospital and have been getting opinions from all the paramedics and EMTs going through the ER making the fixed blade won't be a problem long as I can find a suitable steel I am still working on the design for the locking mechanism on the folders.
 
Sounds like a cool idea you've got. I can't answer anything in regards to water jetting costs-never done that. But, I believe it gets more cost effective the more you have done. If you have the ability to do some on your own to prototype them and be sure the concept/designs are all what you want first, that'd probably help mitigate frustration and money lost.

As for steel, there are a lot of variables. Probably first is do you want stainless or carbon? If you're going to end up selling these, cost is going to be a factor. Some of the super steels out there can really cost you-will you be able to recover that with the price point? There are a whole lot of steels out there that would make very suitable knives. Perhaps the more important thing to look at is the appropriate heat treat for the steel so you land where you need to be for the intended end purpose. Will you be doing the heat treat yourself or sending them out?

The good thing is, there are folks on here who have lots of great experience and knowledge of a variety of steels that can give their opinion. Good luck, hope it all works out for you.


Jeremy
 
Probably stainless I won't go really high grade steel just enough to keep the edge to begin with. If I can get enough interest at the right price I will sell them that way and probably get a large order of blanks cut. I'll probably work up another blade design at some point and work it into the same handle design to mitigate parts cost. And if they do well I'll probably take orders for better steel.
At this point I'm working with a drill press, 1"belt sander and files. So any more than 4-5 made and I will have to get some blanks cut otherwise the time spent on one blade won't be acceptable at any reasonable price point. I'll start selling at a price disregarding hours worked ( probably just double material cost depending on what that will be). Its a hobby for me and I enjoy the design aspect and prototyping more than production because of my tooling situation.
 
As for heat treat... It will be sent out if I'm doing more than one at a time. I have a small paint can gas forge that I use for ring making, and other metal work. And its only capable of 2"by 8" though it is a fast little bugger using a torch haha. All my other knives were torch treated. And oil quenched. Then reheated and hot sand cooled.
 
By no means do I have it all figured out. Haha. I'm getting allot of constructive criticism from some fire rescue guys and right now my biggest issue is going to be what steel to use.
 
i am a bit curious about the steels used previously and your heat treat process. I am not familiar with with this hot sand cooling
 
Hot sand cooling is when you take a steel bucket put sand in it and used oil. Then you heat a iron rod before and with your intended piece. You "quench" the iron rod multiple times in the oiled sand to warm the sand.

Basicly it is a tempering method for doing multiple pieces back to back from forge.
 
Let me suggest to you that making a single folding knife will not be accomplished with files unless you spend mega hours making it.
Frank
 
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SNIP......... right now my biggest issue is going to be what steel to use.
Click to expand...

That right there is what I mean. You have no freaking idea how to make a high performance knife. Seriously. That's your biggest issue? You need to slow down on the selling talk and the design talk and read a bit first. I'd start with the stickies.

I did a search on hot sand quench. I can find no mention of it anywhere. Care to let us in on where you learned about it?
 
That method seems like it would be very difficult to get the sand hot enough, or to keep it a consistent enough temp for tempering. What steel was used?
 
The blacksmith that I work with.
And the selling talk is to figure out whether or not its feesable. The reason I asked any questions at all is because I have no experience at all at selling or production. Mearly hobby crafting. I never said anything I've made will pass a master smith test and I never even said I was a knife maker. I enjoy working with metal and designing metal objects. If I had a CNC and large belt grinder I wouldn't have asked I'd have just made some knives out of shit steel and sent them for heat treat.
I asked questions because I expected at least some type of help or maybe some suggestions...?
 
Your using rod iron for the heating of the sand, and it does take a while to warm it up. I used spring steel a few times, 02 once or twice and a few I'm not sure of including some type of high speed steel from a 25hp motor shaft that blew out at work.
 
Judging from your current heat treatment "equipment" there's no question: you're going to send this out for HT. So that opens up every blade steel known to man. You can judge for yourself what is in your price range.

The hardness suitable for this application is the real question. Blades and screw drivers have very different hardness requirements. Some EMT really said they want something sharp on one end and Phillips head on the other? Not much of this makes much practical sense to me.
 
Yea he focused wanting a small pry more than anything. And threw in wanting small drivers. More than likely the drovers won't make the cut. Ha.
 
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